Posted: 11/10/05
Another big layoff at Westling
By Joel Stottrup
The financially-beleaguered Westling Manufacturing Co. laid off approximately 150 more workers last Thursday, apparently closing the plant for now except for some volunteer help or skeleton crew members working.
The spouse of a laid-off worker told the Union-Eagle that a call went out to laid-off employees that they could help do some work that had to be completed at the plant but that they would not be paid.
Some of the people who were laid off last week provided information for this story, but declined to give their names. One of the former employees explained that they worried that if they gave their name they would not get rehired if a job should become available.
Owner John Westling did not return phone calls to the Union-Eagle. Calls to Westling Mfg. on Thursday, Friday and Monday resulted in an answering machine message that said, "Our offices are currently closed."
John Westling did give statements for an Oct. 20 Union-Eagle story shortly after he laid off 70 workers on Oct. 17. He said at the time that it left 275 workers.
Westling stated in the Oct. 20 Union-Eagle that the company was "restructuring and reorganizing to survive."
Eight former employees who were laid off last Thursday said in interviews Friday that they had not received pay for the week before nor for the work they did up until the middle of Thursday.
A meeting was held at Westling Mfg. early Thursday afternoon to announce the latest layoff. Some of the eight said they had heard from a company employee the day before that things had begun to look better for getting the financing Westling Mfg. needed to keep going.
But then the layoff came the next day, the laid-off employee said. "It's puzzling how this could happen overnight," one of the eight said.
Seven of the eight said they did not have health insurance after the loss of their job at Westling Mfg. One also said she had just gone to Westling Mfg. to try to get reimbursement for some prescription drug expenditures as part of the flexible health reimbursement plan set up through the company. Her request for reimbursement was denied, she said.
One of the seven who said they were now without health insurance has a spouse with a serious illness, and was worried about being able to get a replacement policy.
"He's trying hard to get financing," said one employee about John Westling's efforts to keep the company going.
"The bank's told him yes one day, and no the next," another said.
One of the eight said that the loss of employment felt like a "death."
"It's a real emotional letdown," said another in the group. "This is hard."
"We're grieving," said one of the eight.
"Three of us are the sole financial support [in the household]," another said.
One employee had been laid off in the second rounds of layoffs at the former Smith System Mfg. plant in Princeton. That layoff was in 1994 and the plant eventually closed several years ago.
One thing Smith System and Westling Mfg. have in common is manufacturing, of course. Westling Mfg. remanufactured auto parts, mainly alternators and starters. Smith System made office furniture, with most of the components being metal.
But those companies also were facing more competition, either from Mexico or China in what is called today's global economy.
Westling Mfg. was started in 1933 by John Westling's father Don Westling. The company has two plants. There is the older plant that is located along Old Highway 18 adjacent to the ice arena, and the newest plant on the west end of the city's largest industrial park.
Princeton Union-Eagle
P.O. Box 278
Princeton, MN 55371
Telephone: 763-389-1222
Fax: 763-389-1728